Ask HN: Business Is Making $400k / Year– Now I Don't Know What to Do with Myself

It's really hard for me to self-motivate. I get into slumps where I don't make progress on anything, then I spend a lot of time feeling bad and thinking about what to do, and then loop back to not doing anything.

If you look at Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, 'esteem' needs is right below self-actualization and what you and I do is bounce between these two levels. When you work alone and can't self-motivate, how do you satisfy the need for a sense of accomplishment, for power and prestige, for respect so you can self actualize?

Sometimes all I need is a goal. The right goal can kickstart my desire to do things and progress makes me feel accomplished, but these goals are hard to find.

Sometimes all I need is a checklist. Checking things off as done is a great motivator for me but it requires having things I need or want to do.

When I don't have a goal or a checklist, I hop on hackerrank and do practice problems. The ranking system is an ok motivator, I get the sense of progress and accomplishment when I complete a problem and I don't feel like I'm wasting time like when I get that from a video game.

After a while, I realize hackerrank isn't really doing much and I want to get out of the loop. This is when I start planning every half hour of the day. I write it out for the next day at the end of the day, set alarms and do whatever the schedule says. It's no longer up to me, I have to follow the schedule. When I'm writing the schedule, I think about things I might be interested in, things that would help others, things that would bring me health, wealth and happiness. I consider how much and what I could get done in half an hour, write it down and do it. Eventually I find something I like and it starts filling my schedule. After some time, I stop scheduling because I'm doing that all day. Then I usually get bored and start the whole loop over again.

Every 100 days I have a reset day (it's in my calendar) to stop and identify what brought joy and accomplishment and try to stay out of the feel bad loop.

I volunteer at a number of helper places (e.g., DataKind) and you'll find organizations really seeking you out -- for advice. I was asked to be a board advisor on vendor selection. Basically, look over what type of skills/org they should hire for a task. How to ask for the right things. I'm sure you can do the same, use your core skill as a force multiplier.

I'm an advisor to a nature non profit. I love nature. I love that I dont have to "do" coding (I get enough of that during the day). But I can help them by finding coders, interviewing people, etc. Small helps that impact them a lot.

And then just let it rip...go for it. $400k a year is only the beginning. Take it to $4m. Like someone else here said, that'll definitely give you a lot to do. If you don't do it, the risk is that someone else will in due time.

It could be a lot of fun and personally rewarding especially if you already have a solid financial set set up and especially if the growth means you can take on employees to create new jobs. Job creation, especially in the community where you live, is a huge net positive.

If any of this resonated with you, then you know what to do.